My wife has an 8x and I have the Nokia 822. We've had them for a few months now, both use gmail and gcal (I use outlook mail too and am looking to completely migrate soon). Both use our own skydrives, share one-note notebooks, and have purchased apps. Now she wants to swap (she doesn't like how the 8x feels in the hand compared to 822)

I've been on Verizon forever so having SIM cards is new to me. Is the process to change your phone as simple as swapping the SIM cards? No calling a number and 're-programming' it like we used to do with cdma phones?

The biggest hiccup I'm stressing over is google calendar syncing. When we first got our phones it was right before google started playing games with shutting down their native sync. I would have NO problem migrating 100% to hotmail calendar if this is now a bigger headache than in was in December. But I really hate to make my wife deal with that choice since she really likes gmail and gcal. Have they completely blocked this yet?

The other thing is the windows phone backup service. I'm not really sure what the scope of that is, does anyone have experience with it where it could make this whole process easier? Would it not do any good due to trying to restore to different phone models?

I searched threads about this first and can't find any guidelines on how to do this. Longtime Android user so I'm afraid I'm making some bad assumptions. Would appreciate some feedback on what I should think about, check, or watch out for. Even if I don't get feedback I will try to post updates here to help others with this in the future.

Hey i have an 8x and an 822 ... looking to sell the 822 actually (pm if interested)..but yeah... you can swap sims over and not worry about any programming or anything.

Your Google Calendar is tied to your gmail account. So assuming you factory reset each others devices before swapping, the only thing you will be losing is tile layout. As soon as you sign into the :new" phone with your Live ID, your texts, apps (not app data), pictures, and contacts should come over.

Then when you add your Google account, your info should move over from there. Its a really REALLY painless process. As far as using Outlook and syncing with your phone, i have made a great video for work training that would explain that. PM me if youd like it, just dont share since its for my work and that may be frowned upon...eventhough i havent officially submitted it yet.

Hopefully I'm understanding what you are saying correctly. Any additional questions let me know. I switch phones constantly due to my job. So I have definitely been there.

Thanks for the great feedback. Good news about the sim cards. I don't think I need help with outlook syncing (I was referring to the SkyDrive mail, not desktop).

With Gmail, the mail part is no problem establishing a sync. Gcal was a bit tricky. We discussed that in another thread in Dec. Sorry I can't link to it, doing this on my phone!

We got one phone in November, to get it to sync multiple gcals took navigating to a google settings page from the phone's mobile browser to associate your device with google calendar sync. No problem.

A few weeks later, when we got the 2nd phone, this no longer worked. That original link redirected to a different page. Then we(those of us in that forumn) found a work around to get to that settings page.

A few weeks after, users were then having trouble with the new method which was a clear indication that google was intentionally blocking it. I believe it was around that time that google announced that they'd stop supporting whatever sync standard MS uses.

Yes I am aware that I could erase my google accounts on my phone and try to re-establish the full sync but was hoping someone else could confirm or deny that google was still making our lives difficult before I risk losing my multi-cal sync.

Also note that the basic winphone google account sync does sync both mail and PRIMARY google calendar just fine. No concern there. It's being able to sync multi-calendars that's been an issue.

As a side note, I would have migrated fully off google by now if MS would just update their hotmail calendar like they did with their webmail. I have multiple personal and shared gcals, if I talk my wife into switching, I at least want it to be an improvement! Imho, outlook mail >Gmail but gcal >hotmail cal.

Thanks again for your advice! I'm a little surprised you are giving up the 822. I'm looking forward to rocking the 8x but will miss a lot about 822. Rhapsody beta is now letting me save playlists/albums offline...need more storage now that Verizon data is so expensive!

I have about an hour commute to work everyday, so the audio quality is really the deciding factor. I love the screens black levels and colors on the 822. The low resolution didnt bother me at all. It really came down to audio and form factor. 8x is the best feeling phone i have ever held.